The fastpitch season heads into the dog days of July, with teams grinding it out, working to get ready for the World, Nationals and what not. This weekend sees the California Painters heading south to try on the So Cal Alliance teams before they and a whole handful of Alliance teams meet up for the big one in Stockton over Labor Day.
This time last year, it was Jeff Coleman’s Valley Lyons team competing in the final Alliance event in Corona, with the Rounders winning out, but falling a point short of catching Alliance champion Edge Fastpitch.
This year, it’s some of those same Edge players, now part of Primetime, battling with the Amigos for this year’s title. Coleman will not be in SoCal with his Painters team, though, as he will be taking a weekend out to coach the So Cal Bombers in Allentown, PA at the prestigious Walsh Tournament, where they’ll see six Top 10 (ISC) teams.
Ironically, it was Coleman’s Painters that topped the Bombers at Red Rock, sending them into a bit of a tailspin that included a disappointing 0-4 weekend at the Portland Rose Cup. No doubt the Bombers are out to make a point this weekend, and regain form before the ISC World in a few weeks.
The following weekend, July 29-31, 2005 will be a big one for west coast teams, with Broken Bow and the Western Canadian teams meeting in the Vancouver Challenge, while Portland, Utah and the Southern California teams meet down south at Winchester in the 15th annual Best of the West tournament (California’s longest running tournament, headed up by David Blackburn, who arrives back from the Maccabiah Games in Israel just in time for Best of the West.)
August 4-7, 2005 is the date for the ASA’s premier event, the Men’s Major, in Altamonte, Florida. Last year, Dean Holoien pitched the Farm Tavern to a title in that one, with plenty of help from his teammate from So Cal, Todd Budke. Holoien broke the ASA record for strikeouts in a game with an incredible total of 21, then for good measure, no-hit Broken Bow in the championship game. Last weekend the Farm suffered a big blow when Holoien injured his shoulder at Casino Rama. Unconfirmed reports have him as “doubtful” for the ASA Major. A regular top finisher in the Major, Midland Michigan will not be in the tournament this year. No So Cal teams will be at the Major, or so we’re told.
On the horizon beyond that, of course, is the ISC World Tournament, and ISC-II Tournament of Champions, the premier event in the game, with sister-cities Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin hosting 80 of the best teams in the game. Team Rainey and the So Cal Bombers will represent the California Area in the ISC World, considered by some to be the “Granddaddy of them all”. The Bombers and Team Rainey spent most of the season ranked #18 and #20 respectively, but without any “big name” scalps on their resumes, at least thus far. Both figure to be stronger at the ISC World, picking up aces from the Vancouver Grey Sox, who are opting for the Senior Canadians instead of the ISC World. The Bombers will take Nick Underhill, to go with Travis Price and Tony Peeples, while Team Rainey will add Rick Smith to combine with their British Columbian ace, Bricklen Anderson, who has shouldered most of the pitching duties for Rainey.
The NorCal Mavericks, a new team for 2005 consisting of part Leafs, Cal Crew, Rainey and Lyons will represent the California area in the ISC-II Tournament, with Ed Gaspar and Spud Barker on the mound, and hitters like Chris Wright and Troy Parker leading the way. That tournament runs August 14-19, 2005 and will feature a live audio broadcast program just like its bigger brother, the ISC, and keep your editor busy, teaming up with ISC II Commish Blair Setford in the broadcast booth for 18-20 games, along with the rest of the ISC-II broadcast crew.
Still trying to get a fix on the ISC-II level of play? Somewhere between ASA Major and “A”, is probably about right. One frame of reference is that McKie Sporting Goods, winner of the 2004 ASA “A” was ranked around #10 most of this year in the ISC-II. This year, they’ll be playing in the ISC-II, so it will be interesting to see how they fare. The majority of the top teams in the ISC-II hail from the Ontario province of Canada, so the pitching is top notch, as are the teams. The top ISC-II teams would probably fare pretty well in the Major, though there are pitchers in the Major who would not be eligible to pitch in the ISC-II.
Labor Day belongs to the ASA, with their A, B and C National Tournaments. So far from So Cal, the three R’s have qualified for the ASA “C” National in Stockton, the Rounders (Memorial Day Qualifier, second place), and Rude Pac and RAW (first and second respectively in the Association tournament.). Primetime and the Amigos are locks to capture the top two spots in the Alliance, after this weekend’s final tournament, earning berths in the process, with the Long Beach Black Sox a virtual lock, or at least prohibitive favorite to capture the final berth from So Cal, which ought to make the controversial ending of the Association tournament easier for them to swallow.
There will be plenty of California teams in Stockton for the “C” Nationals, including those from the Central and Northern League, some additional ones from the Regional Qualifier at Lancaster August 6-7, 2005, and perhaps some more from the “pay-to-play” crowd that finds a way into the tournament, which is rumored to be approaching a bloated 80 or 90 (?) teams, in a redux of the 2003 event in Sacramento. Fall into the loser’s bracket early? Fuggadaboutit! The Rounders dropped their first game at the 24 team qualifier in May and had to win 8 games in little more than 24 hours to finish second. The 2003 “C” National required a 15-game comeback through the loser’s bracket in less than 3 days, and that was with 70-something teams. Too many, IMHO.
Wherever you may be between now and Labor Day, there will be no shortage of good fastpitch to play, or follow. Stay with us, it’s just about to get interesting.